Shot on Film: A Bygone Era - Mexico November 1976

When I have spare time, I enjoy film scanning.  We have several high-quality scanners here in the studio, but my favorite is our Minolta DiMage 5400.  There was a time when we would shoot hundreds of rolls of color reversal film per year and scanning was a part of our regular workflow.  Particularly Fuji Astia 100, as it was my hands down favorite.  Often, we would load these film slides into projector trays and have client image viewings using a projector and screen.  That being said, we were always on the lookout for additional projector trays and would often find them for sale at estate sales, garage sales, flea markets etc.  We could never have too many.

 

Nearly everyone kept the original boxes that the trays came in for storage which kept the tray in pristine condition.  Many came loaded with family photos, business photos, snap shots, vacations etc.  Whenever we noticed that the trays had slides in them, we would try to return the film to its proper owner.  In some cases, however, it was impossible to tell when and where the tray of slide film came from and surprisingly many if not all didn’t want the film back.  Just throw it away was commonly heard.  Well, that’s something that a photographer never does.

 

I started to randomly pull a slide or two from some old trays that we hadn’t emptied and scan them.  I am going to post them here under our new feature ‘A Bygone Era’.  I will also try to identify the time period in which the film was shot, the type of film and if possible, the location.

 

I think this is going to be fun, because for me anyway I can look at a slide and just try and reminisce to what life was like during this time.  Since most of the film I have was shot during my lifetime, this won’t exactly be difficult to do.

 

Our first slide is obviously taken from a hotel room while someone was on vacation in Mexico.  This slide is stamped November 1976, a simpler time indeed.  The film here is Kodak Kodachrome.  Notice the complete absence of grain and the robust colors.  Like most film, it scans and displays like it was shot yesterday.  I hope you will enjoy our series of images as we look back at A Bygone Era, and if anyone recognizes the slide as their own, please email me so that we can return it to you.

 

Norman